


kiss kiss fall in love

by orphan_account



Series: troy and abed fake date (and then fall in love for real) [1]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25004485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: At Dean Pelton's insistance, Troy and Abed tell the study group that they're dating. They're totally not. But then they have to make it convincing. And that might prove more complicated than they thought. And also what if they ~fall in love for real~??????I was like damn where are the Troy/Abed fake dating AUs so I became the change I wanted to see in the worldI did 0 proofreading I wrote this in one feverish fit of insanity plz enjoy <3(no relation to Ouran Host Club)
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Series: troy and abed fake date (and then fall in love for real) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1846486
Comments: 9
Kudos: 188





	kiss kiss fall in love

Things had been suspiciously quiet at Greendale for a few weeks. After the student government debacle, things had settled down, a little too much. No antics or shenanigans in sight. It was making Troy antsy.

Perhaps that was why, when the Dean sashayed into the study room one afternoon unprompted, Troy didn’t match Jeff’s groan of despair. The Dean’s presence promised something ridiculous was on the horizon, or at least mildly wacky. He glanced over at Abed, whose general look of apathy seemed slightly more invested than usual, and he felt confident that his best friend shared his sentiment. They were overdue for an escapade.

“Well, if it isn’t Troy Barnes,” The Dean exclaimed, making his way to the opposite side of the table with only a brief pat on Jeff’s shoulder. Jeff looked distinctly relieved as the Dean moved away from him. “And, coincidentally, Abed Nadir! The very two of Greendale’s finest I was just hoping to see, in the same study room!”

“What a shocking surprise,” Jeff offered, pulling out his cellphone. The Dean ignored him.

“What’s up, Dean?” Troy asked, trying not to look too invested. He still had some reputation for being cool to uphold. 

The Dean attempted to lean on the back of Troy’s chair with one hand, but his grip missed, and he ended up stumbling into Troy’s shoulder. Regaining his footing, he tried to cover it up by swinging his arm up around Troy’s back in a very unwelcome one-armed hug. Troy shrugged him off. 

“Well,” The Dean backed up a couple of steps, still a little flustered. “’What’s up’ is, in fact, such an important and exciting thing, that I couldn’t possibly divulge it in front of all these regulars,” He gestured vaguely to the other members of the study group seated around the table, to a round of scoffing and offended gasps from everyone.

“Regulars?” Britta said. “Is this conversation sports related? I’ll have you know it’s very patriarchal to value someone by their ability to perform well in sports.”

“When people start showing up stadium-sized crowds to your feminist-themed beat poetry readings, I’m sure we’ll value you too,” Jeff snarked, before turning back to the Dean. “But I have to agree – what could you possibly need from these two nerds that doesn’t involve the rest of us? Not that I want to be involved,” He added, a little sharply. “But on principle, I have to object.” 

“I wasn’t paying attention to the conversation,” Added Pierce. “But I’m also offended.”

The Dean sighed. “Mr. Nadir, Mr. Barnes, please accompany me to my office. Now.”

Troy glanced at Abed, who shrugged. They stood up and followed the Dean out of the study room, leaving their friends’ trailing exclamations of indignation behind.

Inside the Dean’s office, he leaned against his desk like a cool teacher in a coming-of-age movie. 

“So here’s the deal,” He addressed them. “I have a problem, and I need your help. A news crew is coming to Greendale tomorrow.”

“Are they filming a documentary?” Abed’s eyes lit up. “Do they need a director? I just finished editing my Pierce documentary - I can send it in as my audition.”

“The last documentary you made ended in me crying multiple times.” Troy said. “I don’t know if I want to do all that again.”

“It’s not a documentary.” The Dean sounded exasperated, even though the conversation was only about twenty seconds in. “They’re doing an article for the Colorado Community College Gazette about diversity on our campus.”

“Is that a real magazine?” Troy asked.

“Sounds a little too niche to be plausible.” Abed agreed. “Are you making this up as an excuse to secretly film the school?”

“No!” The Dean cried. “Why would I – what possible reason would I have to do that?”

Abed and Troy shrugged in unison.

“My point is,” The Dean continued. “They’re doing an article on diversity on our campus, and I need representation from the LGBT community for them to interview.”

Troy blanched. “Uh… so you called in two straight dudes?” He glanced over at Abed, who had his head cocked and his brows crinkled slightly. “There are gay people on this campus, you know. You threw that whole ‘Pride Dance’, like, a month ago.”

“Funny you should mention that.” The Dean said. “Because ever since that Pride dance, every confirmed LGBT person I’ve approached on this campus has told me that they're single.”

“Maybe it’s because you kept approaching the couples at the dance asking if them were interested in doing it with a third.”

Abed nodded in agreement. “Kinda homophobic of you.”

“Oh, please, Abed, don’t be ridiculous.” The Dean dropped his voice. “I do that at the straight dances too.”

“So you can’t find a gay couple, big whoop.” Troy said, leaning back in his chair. “It’s not like you traumatized anyone so hard they went back into the closet.”

“Well, in order to really showcase our diversity on campus, I had been hoping to be able to let them interview a gay _couple_. Preferably one of, you know,” He gestured vaguely towards Troy and Abed. “Diverse leanings. Diversity. Which we have at Greendale.”

“…You want us to pretend to be an interracial gay couple so you can pretend that Greendale is more diverse than it is.” Abed summed up. “Seems simple. We’ll do it.”

Troy raised his eyebrows. “We will?”

Abed looked at him. “The campus is dead air, Troy. When was the last interesting thing that happened? It’s either this or start asking about our friends’ love lives.”

Troy considered this, and then he considered the day last week when Shirley had spent an hour describing the flowers Andre had gotten her for their six-months-since-you-came-back-after-cheating-on-me-with-a-stripper-anniversarys. He wanted to fall asleep just thinking about it. “Fine. We’re in.”

“Oh, thank God.” The Dean sank down, so his back was against the edge of his desk. “My back-up plan involved putting Shirley in a wig and a mustache, and I did not want to have that conversation. You two are life savers.”

Troy stood up, and Abed followed him. “Anytime, Dean.” He hesitated. “Actually, I take that back. Please don’t ask us to do anything, ever again.”

As Troy and Abed left the room, the Dean followed them and stood in the doorway of his office. “Oh, and one more thing.” The Dean cleared his throat as Troy and Abed turned to look back at him. “I may have sent out some Greendale brochures featuring a picture of Jeffrey and I standing next to each other, and there’s a chance he may be seeking revenge against me in the near future. So I’m going to need the two of you to convince him that your dating as well. In case he feels like spilling this whole thing to the press and ruining my reputation forever.”

This was getting complicated. Troy wondered if he had made a mistake. “Uhm. Okay? We can tell the rest of the study group though, right?”

The Dean’s eyes widened. “Oh, heavens no! Can you imagine? The secret will be across the school in minutes.”

Troy crossed his arms over his chest, feeling a little indignant. “What are you talking about? Our friends are trustworthy!”

Abed cocked his head. “Are they?”

Troy looked at Abed, raising one eyebrow.

“Remember when Shirley told Jeff about Britta’s sex dream?”

The Dean nodded, as if he had somehow already heard about this. “Exactly.”

Troy reddened slightly. He had a point. 

“Or that time that Annie told me she was my Secret Santa three weeks early.”

The Dean nodded again. “Once I had Britta help me with morning announcements. She read five different students’ social security numbers over the intercom.”

“Let’s not even start with Pierce.”

Troy sighed. This was quickly turning from shenanigans to straight-up hijinks. He wasn’t sure he was prepared for it.

He looked over at Abed, who still looked as excited as ever, and made up his mind. If Abed was in, so was he. “Fine. We’ll tell all our friends that we’re dating, and we’ll do your diversity interview.”

“ _Series_ of interviews.” The Dean corrected. “The press is going to be here a whole week.”

Troy sighed. Hijinks indeed.

The meeting had run into the next class period, so Troy and Abed headed back to Abed’s dorm. As they sat on Abed’s couch playing video games, Abed turned to Troy.

“You seemed nervous earlier. Are you sure about doing this?”

Troy shrugged. “What do you mean? You’re the one who wanted to in the first place.”

Abed frowned. “I’m… trying to be considerate of your feelings. I thought I might be pressuring you into something you didn’t want to do.”

That was oddly sweet. Troy didn’t think Abed even considered anything else once he had made his mind up about an escapade. He smiled at him. “Nah, it’s cool. It’ll be like fanfiction, right?”

“What?”

“You know…” Troy waved one of his hands about vaguely. “Like in fanfiction, when two characters pretend to date.” Abed still looked confused. “You never read fanfiction?”

Abed narrowed his eyes. “I like _movies_ , Troy. I’m a connoisseur of _films_.”

Troy chuckled, feeling a little stupid. “Right. Anyway, it’ll be fun. We can tell the study group that we’re dating tomorrow.”

Abed nodded. “I should tell you.” He said, then hesitated. He looked down at his controller. “I’m bisexual. Not that that changes anything, unless it does, for you. I just don’t want you to do anything you feel weird about.”

Troy’s eyebrows shot up. “You are? Since when?”

“Since always.” Abed shrugged. “It’s just never come up before. And I didn’t want you to think differently about me.” He looked up. “Not a lot of bisexual/straight guy friendships on TV, you know.”

Troy shook his head to clear it. “Nah that’s – well, it’s something, but it’s not like it changes anything. We’re still best friends. You’re still Abed. It’s fine.”

Abed nodded once and returned to the game. “So tomorrow then. We can walk into study group holding hands. We can make an announcement straight away, or let it sink in a little bit first. If we let it sink in, I think Pierce will be the first to say something about it.”

Troy nodded, still a little blindsided by Abed’s sudden confession. But it really wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t like it meant anything about their relationship. Right?

Troy stood outside of the study room, waiting for Abed. Operation “fake-date” was set to begin. After a minute, Abed strolled up the hallway and approached Troy, immediately swooping him up in a hug. Before Troy could react, Abed whispered “Engage” softly in his ear and pulled away, reaching his right hand down to entwine their fingers. Troy nodded at Abed, his heart beating a little faster than normal. None of this was weird, not really. He and Abed hugged and held hands all the time. Maybe it was just the adrenaline of being in cahoots with Abed that was exciting him. It had been too long since they had done a proper Troy and Abed caper. 

They walked into the study room like that, to see all their friends already present. Troy cleared his throat to get their attention.

“Hello, friends and associates.” He said, trying to keep his voice as even as possible. “Abed and I have an announcement to make. We are now dating. We are now boyfriends. Gay boyfriends. That is what we are. Because we’re dating.” He glanced over at Abed, who was looking at him with very wide eyes. 

“Yes,” Abed said, his voice even more clipped than normal. 

“Aww,” Annie and Britta cooed in unison.

“You guys! I was wondering when this would happen!” Annie clapped her hands together.

“What?” Troy’s voice cracked as he walked to his seat, still hand-in-hand with his pretend boyfriend. “You were?”

“Well, I can’t say we didn’t suspect it,” Shirley chimed in, her voice as lilting as ever. “And you two are my friends, so of course I support you no matter what. But don’t be surprised to see some brochures for my church in your lockers tomorrow morning.”

“I can’t believe it!” Pierce huffed. “It’s going to take at least a week to write a coming-out speech for the two of you.” He glared at Jeff. “If these two can admit their gay love, what’s keeping you in the closet?”

Jeff had remained suspiciously silent. He narrowed his eyes at Troy. “What prompted this?”

Troy gulped. “Uhh…”

“I confessed to Troy.” Abed cut him off, and Troy breathed a sigh of relief. “Yesterday. In my dorm.”

“Mm hmm,” Jeff nodded. “And what was your meeting with the Dean about?”

Troy swallowed. “Well-”

“Troy and I are assisting the film crew that’s doing a piece on the school next week.” Abed cut in again. “It’s for the film class we’re taking together.” He looked pointedly at Troy, who nodded in agreement. 

“Yeah. Film class.”

Jeff lifted his chin, still keeping his eyes zeroed in on Troy. Troy felt like he was going to melt into a puddle of sweat. “Really.”

Troy nodded again. “Yep.” If this went on for another second, he was going to crack. He flipped open his textbook. “How about we study some Anthropology now?” 

Jeff opened his own textbook, but his eyes remained on Troy. Troy pretended not to notice.

When the group began to file out of the study room, Abed and Troy stayed behind. This prompted a snide comment from Pierce, but they pretended not to hear.

“Okay,” Abed said, once they were alone. “We’ve got to come up with a detailed backstory to explain this.”

“What? Why?”

“Troy.” Abed gave him a stern look. “You’re a really bad liar.”

Troy scoffed. “I am such a good liar.” 

Abed’s head tilted downward so he was looking at Troy from under his furrowed eyebrows in a Kubrick Stare of disbelief. 

Troy huffed. “Fine, so I can’t lie. And you can?”

Abed placed his hands on the table. “I am an expert liar. I’ve read the bible of lying. Since that one time you tried to mess with me, I’ve done my research. I’m an academic of deceit. I’ve co-authored articles on the art of it.”

“Wha – is that true?”

Abed paused. He lifted his head. “No. That was a lie.” He shot a quick finger gun at Troy. “Case in point.”

“Woah, you are good.” Troy shook his head. “Damn.” 

Troy would later find out that, in fact, Abed’s last statement had been the real lie, when he found a copy of one of Abed’s co-authored articles in his dorm. The Secret of Deceit, peer-reviewed by 7 different psychology professors. 

“So,” Abed pulled out a notebook and a handful of pencils. “We’ve established that we started dating in my dorm yesterday. What prompted the change in our relationship?”

“Huh,” Troy thought about this. “We have to make it foolproof, so it can’t be traced back to the Dean.” His eyes lit up.

“And it has to be cool.” Abed added on. “Because it’s us.”

Troy grinned. “Obviously, dude.” He took a pencil from Abed’s pile. “Okay, what if over winter break you got kidnapped? And I was really worried about it, only I didn’t know why, and then I had to save you?”

Abed nodded. “Cool.” He began to scribble it down.

A little while later, Troy sat back. “Okay, so after we got lost in Greendale’s underground tunnels and found our way out into a fancy restaurant, we got mistaken for a famous married couple and had to pretend we were them to avoid the mafia killing us after we left the restaurant. And then when we got out, we realized we were in love and started dating.” He looked up at Abed, who’s lips were curved into the barest of smiles. 

“It’s foolproof. Can’t be traced back to the Dean at all.”

“And it’s awesome.” Troy reached out and they did their handshake. “If we were dating for real, I’m pretty sure this is how it would go down.”

Abed’s smile faded, but he nodded. “Perfect.”

Troy was getting excited now. So far, this scheme had delivered just the desired amount of shenanigans. He looked up at Abed, who was eyeing him softly. “Oh, one other thing. Do you think we’ll need to… kiss?” 

Abed drew back. “What?”

“Like, will we be expected to kiss?” Troy shrugged. “And if we are, maybe we should practice? I’ve never kissed another dude before.”

Abed looked down at his hands, remaining silent. A moment later, he looked up again. “Unlikely. We’ll only be fake-dating for a week, and lots of couples restrict their displays of affection when in public. It isn’t necessary.”

“Oh.” Troy nodded. “That makes sense.” He knew Abed was right, but he couldn’t shake a vague sense of disappointment. He wasn’t sure why. 

Abed checked his watch. “We’re due for our first interview in exactly twelve minutes. You ready?”

Troy nodded. He held out his hand for Abed to take. “I’m ready to be the best fake-boyfriend the world has ever seen.”

Abed took his hand, looking at it quizzically. “Cool. Cool cool cool.”

The interview was weird. They asked a lot of questions about what it was like to be an interracial, inter-religion couple at Greendale, and Troy and Abed didn’t have an answer beyond “real great, thanks”. They weren’t really interested in talking about the struggles they had to face to be together. Not when they had an awesome backstory prepared to talk about instead.

Finally, the interviewer posed the question “how did you two get together?” and Abed lit up. He began recounting the epic tale of their kidnapping-alligator wrestling-mafia boss-crime fighting adventure, and Troy took a second just too look at his best friend. He liked watching Abed tell stories, especially ones that they had come up with together. It was like watching the sunrise, how the dark sky lit up in a billion different colors. 

After the interview, they returned to the study room, where Jeff was studying alone.

Jeff crossed his arms. “Where were you guys?”

“Helping with the press interviews.” Troy answered. “For film class, remember?”

Jeff frowned. “Hmm. Interesting that you two just happened to get together right before a press crew doing and article on diversity came to Greendale, isn’t it?”

“What are you in-syndicating?”

“Insinuating,” Abed whispered.

Troy shrugged. “As I can clearly explain to you, Abed and I have been leading up to this for like, three months. The timing is pure coincidence?” 

“Really.” Jeff said. “Because this whole shebang has someone else’s fingerprints all over it. Someone who’s name rhymes with ‘Bean’.”

Abed rolled his eyes. “You know that name is pronounced ‘Shawn’, right Jeff? And as supportive as Sean Jones, president of Greendale’s Gay-Straight Alliance, is, he didn’t have anything to do with us getting together.”

“Yeah,” Troy made a mental note how to pronounce “Sean”, in case he ran into him. He noted forlornly that that meant that Sean Bean’s name didn’t rhyme after all. How disappointing. “We got together all on our own. We can tell you how if you want to know.

Jeff sighed. “Don’t bother. I don’t need to know whatever story you two have concocted. I’m sure it’s plenty whimsical.”

“Oh, it was.” Troy said, as fiercely. “It was chock-full of whims.”

Jeff leaned back in his chair. “But if you two are really dating, why don’t you prove it for me? Show me that you’re actually in a relationship. Because this still seems incredibly suspicious to me.” 

“Prove it? How?” Troy looked over at Abed in concern. They had to convince Jeff, or this entire thing would be for naught. Abed looked deep in thought. “You know you can just believe us right? We’re your friends, why would we lie to you?”

“I never understand anything you two do.” Jeff said. “But even this, like I said, has the reek of a certain Dean all over it. I swear-”

Troy huffed, cutting him off. He wasn’t a good liar, but he would have to be now. “I have no clue what you mean-“ Before he could finish his lie (which was going to be incredibly convincing), Abed leaned over to Troy and kissed him on the lips.

Oh. Troy’s eyes fluttered closed. The kiss lasted one, two, three seconds before Abed pulled away and glared pointedly at Jeff, who seemed mildly shocked.

“If you’ll excuse us.” Abed took hold of a slightly-dazed Troy’s hand and lead him out of the room without another word.

As they walked to Abed’s dorm, Abed kept hold of Troy’s hand.

“I thought you didn’t want to kiss.” Troy said.

“I said I thought we wouldn’t have to. Circumstances changed.” Abed noted, still looking ahead. “Do you think that convinced him?”

“If he wasn’t, we can always kiss in front of him again.” He found that at the moment, he didn’t really care that much.

The week passed with a delightful amount of hijinks. Abed and Troy kept building on their awesome kidnapping-alligator wrestling-mafia boss-crime fighting-avalanche surviving-taco eating-bomb diffusing get together adventure until it had become a whole saga stretching out the whole year before. If anyone didn’t believe they were really truly together, it sure wasn’t their fault.

Jeff remained suspicious, but his suspicion seemed partially subdued after the kiss, and he didn’t question them again. Somehow, Troy kind of wished he had been suspicious.

The best part of it all was having an adventure that, ultimately, was just for them. Troy couldn’t remember the last time he and Abed had done something that no one else knew the truth about like this, and that made it feel all the more special. He loved to see Abed’s face light up when they came up with a new idea for the backstory, especially when that idea was Troy’s. It made him feel warm inside in a way he didn’t fully understand. 

When Friday came, and the press crew left for good, Troy and Abed returned to Abed’s dorm to celebrate with pizza and a movie.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” Troy asked as he sat down on the couch.

Abed wasn’t looking at him, but he nodded from where he stood by the TV.

“We should do it again sometime.”

Abed stiffened. “Hmm.”

“What’s that?”

Abed looked up at him. “Why would we do it again? You didn’t think it was weird?”

“Uhh…” Troy blinked. “I mean, what was weird about it?”

Abed sat down next to him. He took a deep breath, still looking at his hands.

“You’re my best friend, right?”

“Yeah, of course.” Troy raised his eyebrows.

“I don’t want anything to get in the way of that.”

Troy was beginning to get worried. “What could possibly make us stop being best friends?”

“I don’t think we can do the fake-dating thing again.” Abed began to speak in a rush. “Because – because if we keep doing it, I might start thinking it’s real.” 

“What do you mean by that? Do you… do you want it to be real?”

“I…” Abed finally looked up at Troy. “Yeah. I’m in love with you.” He looked back down, and began speaking very, very quickly. “But-our-friendship-is-more-important-and-if-you-don’t-like-me-just-forget-I-said-anything-let’s-just-watch-the-movie.”

Oh.

_Oh._

Troy felt like he had been slapped in the face. But like… in a good way. He hadn’t thought… Well, he had known Abed was bisexual, but he had never dreamed in a million years that Abed might have feelings for him. 

Him.

But suddenly all Troy could think about was the past week, when he and Abed had walked hand-in-hand, and come up with a story that was just about them, and kissed, and suddenly all Troy could think about was how he wanted to kiss Abed again.

So he did.

Kissing Abed felt familiar, and new, and like every feeling at once all together. Troy decided that he liked it. After a few seconds, he pulled away and looked into Abed’s eyes, which were wide.

“I’m in love with you too.” Troy said. “Like, a lot. And I think I have been for a while, only I didn’t notice because I was too busy thinking I was straight.”

“But… you’re not, right?” Abed’s voice wavered.

Troy smiled. “I’m not. I’m really not.”

Abed smiled, bigger than Troy had ever seen him smile before. And suddenly the world felt completely right. 

“You know,” Abed said. “I think, with a little embellishment, this getting-together story could be pretty good too. Maybe not as good as the one we came up with-”

“It’s way better,” Troy interrupted. “Nothing could be better than this story. Because this is the one that’s real.” And he leaned in to kiss Abed again.

**Author's Note:**

> also the title is literally meaningless bc when i was outlining this my last note for the ending was just "kiss kiss fall in love"


End file.
